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Thursday, 10 November 2011
Monday, 7 November 2011
Conversing the Kindgom: Satisfaction to Affliction - Exodus 1:8-22
Last time we focused on setting the scene for a study in Exodus. Looking right back to the call of Abraham out of Ur of Chaldeans we picked up the main theme of sojourning, Abraham’s temporary residence in foreign lands. It turns out that God’s view of temporary and ours seldom line up and God warned Abraham that his offspring would not have a land to call their own for another 400 years. Kind of brings a whole new meaning to the word temporary in God’s Kingdom. As Christians in the Church of Jesus we can relate to Abraham and his life of residence as to be a Christian is to be called out of a life of status quo into a life that is distinctly at odds with the world around us. However, the promise of heaven is to be forever in our hearts just as the Promised Land was for Abraham. ‘No yet’ is the reoccurring theme for Abraham as it is for us. However, as for Abraham and us as we deal with the ‘Not yet’ in life the Lord is always with us sanctifying us through his spirit for righteousness that we might declare his praise.
In the passage that we are to look at today we find the Israelites in Egypt. Joseph is dead and a new king has arisen in Egypt who does not know Joseph. Whilst Joseph, all his brothers and that generation was still alive the Israelites received great favour from the Egyptians having been settled in the best of the land and with God’s blessing upon them they had multiplied exceedingly, filling the land. But it was not just the new king who did not know joseph but the Israelites themselves were beginning to forget who they were and where they had come from. They had gotten comfortable. The land of great blessing, the land of safety was about to become a place of bondage. The Israelites were settling in for the long haul. Feeling safe and secure in the land of Goshen they believed they had found home. They had lost sight of the promises that the Lord had given to Abraham and they were about to get a wake-up call, the wake-up call to end all wake up calls. Their place of satisfaction was about to become a place of affliction.
It is a truth that we must come to accept, either on faith or through hard lessons that if we look for our satisfactions in this life in the end they will turn out to be the source of our affliction. The career driven person who gets fired from their dream job is not just upset but devastated. The romantic who longs to find the ONE becomes more and more disillusioned with each failed relationship. Etc etc. The trouble comes when we say to ourselves “If only... then I will be satisfied.”
I have often caught myself out and perhaps you have too thanking the Lord for the blessing that it is to live in a country with such a great Christian heritage on the one hand and then on the other hand being shocked by the news headlines. The Sectarianism Bill, Redefining Marriage, Stem Cell Research, IVF, Section 5, Sex education in schools, euthanasia, Abortion, sex changes, New age spiritual healing, homosexual ministers. This list quite literally goes on. What is happening to this once morally strongly Christian country? I feel almost a sense of grief towards the UK. Is this right for us to have? What should be our attitude be towards the state of the United Kingdom? As we look at the passage this evening we can observe some striking parallels. We find here four levels of degradation that we can begin to observe here in the UK too and the hope is that as we look we can learn to identify the stages, be more prepared for what the future might bring and discover the encouragement and responses we can have in a world continuing to reject the Lord.
The four points I would like to briefly cover this evening are as follows. Firstly forgotten heritage where the trouble starts; secondly the forgotten heritage leads on to the beginning of fear where the kingdom of God is labelling a threat; thirdly we see the response to the perceived threat as the world looks to suppress the work of God’s Spirit in his Kingdom; and fourthly we discover the depths of human cruelty in the murder of the innocents. As a church we need to consider that we too can so easily fall into these four steps but for the grace of God in our lives and living a life of repentance led by the Holy Spirit towards righteousness.
So let us firstly look at the forgotten heritage. It is interesting that in the previous few verses we read of Joseph’s death and that of his brothers and then that whole generation. The only way that the story of God’s promises and his faithfulness during the time of the famine will reach the next generation is if the previous generation has done a good job of passing on the message. It is a major responsibility of each generation to pass God’s word to the young to the next generation. But this did not happen and the Israelites began to settle and the knowledge and the fear of the Lord diluted with each new generation. There were the Israelites settling in for the long haul when the Lord’s Promised Land lay 100s of miles to the North East. Israel was beginning to forget its heritage.
On the other side we see as we start this passage there has arisen a new king in Egypt who knew not Joseph. It seems almost crazy to imagine. Joseph’s influence on the country of Egypt simply has no equal and his position in the country second only to Pharaoh. He quite literally, single handily, through the Lord’s direction saved the entire nation and surrounding nations from almost certain death. Yet just a generation later and his name is forgotten, with the knowledge un-retained or considered of little worth. So easily forgotten without continued remembrance are the good works of those who have gone before us. The trouble is that the forgetting of Joseph and his good work is just the first of a two-step process that leads to a forgotten heritage. The second we see clearly outline in ch5:2 with the rise of another pharaoh who declared to Moses and Aaron “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice.” We are to be wary that those who are forget their benefactors will soon forget the ultimate benefactor, the Lord. The Egyptians were quick to forget that the reason they still lived was due to the work of one man Joseph and soon to follow they forgot the God of the Israelites who was the ultimate source of life in the years of famine.
As our country forgets the blessing of the institutes of family and marriage let us not be surprised that they also forget the Lord who instituted the marriage and the family for our blessing. It is a challenge to us that we take seriously the teaching of the upcoming generation that they do not forget the law that they might also not forget the law giver. And so the first point the forgotten heritage.
Secondly we have the beginning of fear and the labelling of the kingdom of God as a threat. God was truly blessing the Israelite nation their numbers were going through the roof. We commented last time that the language in the verse 7 is more akin to describing the multiplication of insects than a group of people. There are so often two responses in this world to God’s blessing. For those close to the kingdom they will rejoice along with the People of God and even acknowledge the hand of the Lord in that situation. The second response is one of suspicion and fear leading to the person taking a defensive position of insecurity. We see this here in the passage as Pharaoh observes the rapid growth of the Israelite nation. He becomes suspicious and fearful of their intentions and from a position of insecurity he looks to defend against that which he refuses to acknowledge. And so he labels the Israelites as a threat and in order to bring all other Egyptian over to his cause he not only labels them a threat but a threat to national security.
This is a pattern that has repeated itself again and again all the way through history. The Israelites and now the Church continually labelled as a threat. And why has this continued to happen again and again. Well I’ll let you into a little secret... Christians are a threat. If we truly live for the Lord with the Spirit of that Lord in our hearts we will shine as lights and we will upset the status quo. We will shine as lights on the things that are hidden away, we will challenge by just being Christians. It is an interesting measure of how Christ like we are and how much we are shining for Jesus when those far from the Kingdom begin to label us a threat. As Christians it is our job to make people non-believers uncomfortable that we might bring them to a state of crisis. The overweight person will not consider a diet until they have had their own personal crisis moment. Similarly the sinner will not be open to receive the good news of the gospel until they have reached their crisis point. As Christians we have all gone through it. We are not Christians because we are good people, we are Christian’s because at some point we have reached that crisis point and confessed ourselves sinner in need of a saviour. The gospel is offensive to unbelievers and when it’s not being offensive we are not doing our job properly. It is Christ in us who challenges the world and refuses to let them sit on the fence and it was Christ among the Israelites as his people that was making Pharaoh and the Egyptians feel very uncomfortable. Similarly in our country today the kingdom of God is making people uncomfortable. Commitment is making people uncomfortable, discipline is making people uncomfortable, self-control is making people uncomfortable and they are withdrawing from it at 100 miles an hour.
This brings us onto the third point the systematic suppression response to the perceived threat of God’s kingdom. Pharaoh has labelled the Israelites a threat and looks to deal wisely with them lest they multiply. I mean, what is worse than having the threat of thousands of Israelites? Hundreds of thousands of Israelites! And so Pharaoh began taking measures to try and suppress the Israelites. Some have suggested it began with heavy taxes to impoverish the Israelites but all we can know from the text is that somehow Pharaoh managed to inflict them with heavy labour forcing them to build the storage cities of Pithom and Raamses. But instead of suppressing the Israelites the heavy labour caused them to multiply all the more, to the point that the Egyptians were in dread of the sons of Israel. See how what began as a perceived threat has now inflated to such an extent that the Egyptians are in dread. What an incredible process from what seems like a position at the beginning when the majority of Egyptians did not so much as give the Israelites a second thought to now a debilitating sense of dread towards them. And so with the dread of the Israelites before their eyes they suppressed them further in order to make their lives bitter. The Egyptians hope to break their spirits, to ruin their health, to discourage marriage and children, to dissuade them from following the Lord that they might be brought over to worship the Egyptians gods. They were looking to force them to conform! Unfortunately we read later this tactic did have an effect as we read in Joshua 24:14 “put away the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt.” Despite this God’s blessing was still with the Israelites and they continued to multiply much to the annoyance of the Egyptians. So it is God’s presence with the Israelites that began the affliction but in the affliction it was the Lord’s presence that brings about the growth to his glory and praise. As we draw close to the Lord in trials he will draw close to us.
Fourthly and finally we discover the depths of cruelty of the human heart. This is the last stage in the process and tends to come about because of continued and stubborn none conformance from the church. I think with respect to the Israelites and later the Jews we have a particularly special case because they are the Lords chosen people. But I think I can be confident in saying if as a church here in the UK we rolled over and conformed to the moral challenges persecution would stop. However if we don’t I believe we need to be ready to discover the depth of human sin like the Israelites did as this story continues Verses 15-22.
The Egyptians started to get desperate. They had labelled the Israelites as a threat, specifically their continued multiplication. And they are working themselves into a frenzy of fear and dread because no matter what they do nothing seems to prevent this threat from growing. The treat is beginning to fill their entire vision. They are desperate, but not in the helpless sense but in the sense that they are now willing to condone any course of action if only to remove their dread. And that is exactly what they turn to. They justify to themselves the murdering of the innocents for the greater good. Romans 3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood” In this act things have turned from foolish (In the Biblical sense of rejecting the Holy Spirit) to evil.
In Genesis we lean of The enmity between the devil and the seed of the woman. The devil is a murderer and what could delight him more than the death of innocents. We see it here with the Egyptians, we see it with Herod and we see it today with the widespread murder of the unborn. But most of all we saw it with Pilate who after confessing that Jesus was innocent he aligned himself with the devil and had Jesus crucified. The greatest injustice of all time at which point the devil believed he had won but instead Jesus wrought the greatest victory of all time. In his death and resurrection he conquered Satan, sin and death. This means that if we believe in Jesus we have no need to fear those who can kill the body because death no longer has a hold on us.
What we see around us in our country is worrying because we see the foolishness of this world has labelled God’s Kingdom as a threat and they are doing everything in their power to suppress it. We also see that in some areas this has moved on from foolishness and is turning evil where the freedom to choose is valued higher than life. But we should not be afraid to challenge the status quo and in fact we must challenge the foolishness of the world because if not the alternative is to be luke warm. And to take up the challenge is not going to be easy; in fact it’s likely to get messy particularly if this country begins to get desperate about pushing out Christ. We have to choice to make a spiritual stand, and it’s never too late to begin. But let us understand that it will cost us and lets not be surprised if soon in this country that cost will be our life!
Just as I finish I would like to share with you the spark of hope in this section of the story that I have just found fascinating. Something I had never noticed before (till I read a particular commentary). The Hebrew midwives noticed something. They observed the Hebrew people and they saw the extraordinary birth rate and vigour of the Hebrew women. They were managing to give birth before the midwives were even able to get there. And what was their response. Were they threatened, did a sense of dread grow within them. No they saw the blessing and they called it out. This is the Hand of the Lord. In the text we read that they feared the Lord. Well you say to me no big deal they were Hebrew Midwives it’s not that surprising. No it wouldn’t be until we look deeper at the text and realise these we not Hebrew midwives they were midwives to the Hebrew people. These two women were Egyptian! And because they could see the blessing that the Lord was giving the Hebrews they feared the Lord instead of Pharaoh and the Lord bestowed upon them the same blessing that they had called out and identified as the Hand of the Lord. The Lord and blessed them with many children. What and amazing ray of light in the darkness!
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Conversing the Kindgom: Sermon: Sojourning - Exodus 1:1-7
As we begin a series in the book of Exodus it is good to understand a little of the context. Exodus is the second of the 5 books penned by Moses that run from Genesis to Deuteronomy. In Genesis Moses records for us the creation of heaven and earth followed by the birthing of Israel in the call of Abram. It is to Abram that the Lord gives the promises of the kingdom of God where the Kingdom of God is God’s people, in God’s place under God’s rule. Throughout Genesis we see Israel as it existed in the family groups of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and now in Exodus we see the account of the church as it grows into a nation.
The definition of the nation of Israel we read about in Isaiah 43:21
“God is forming a people for himself that they might declare his praise”
In Chapters 1-19 we see the accomplishments of the promises made to Abraham and in ch. 20-40 the establishment of the ordinances to be observed by Israel.
So with that brief overview in mind now let us hone in on just these first seven verse of the Book of Exodus. Here we find the sons of Israel residing in Egypt which seems a far cry from the Lord’s promise that Abram’s descendants would one day call the land of Canaan their own. In fact it seems to be a complete backwards step. Although Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had not conquered the land of Canaan at least there were residing there. Now not only are the Canaanites still in possession of the land of Canaan but all the sons of Israel and their households have upped sticks and moved to Egypt. For the last roughly 215 years ever since Abram’s call out of the city of Ur this fledgling nation has not had a place to call home. They have travelled from place to place experiencing hostility at every turn from those currently occupying the land and as we will soon discover in the unfolding of the story things are about to go from bad to worse. The Lord however did not lead Abraham into this life of wondering unprepared and we find in Genesis 15 that as the Lord lays out his covenant to Abram he follows it with these words.
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
This word sojourning is not a word we commonly use these days but put simply you would label yourself a sojourner if you were temporary residing in a place that you did not own. This is a picture that we can readily identify with. Anytime we have seen a baby laugh and wished we could capture that moment. Anytime we have had a great time with a friend and been saddened to part ways. Anytime we have watched a beautiful sunset fade away. Anytime we have been hurt by a friend and couldn’t work out why. Anytime we have cried ourselves to sleep at the loss of a loved one. These moments in life are stark reminders that something is just not right. But more than that for the nation of Israel for Abraham and for us here and now these are all reminders that we are just sojourners in this life. Because as Christians who have given our lives to Christ now we are citizens of heaven. We have been called out of the world of sin and pain just like Abram was called out of the idolatrous city of Ur. And we have been called onwards to take up residence in our true home in heaven. But as Abram was to discover... not yet would become a recurring theme. Not yet... for a time we are called as the church to reside in a place that is not our home we are called to sojourn in a land that is often hostile to the life of Christ. But the greatest news of all, we are not alone and actually this is the greatest lesson that we learn during our sojourning. In this world the Lord is forming us into a people for himself that we might declare his praise. And why declare his praise? Because he does not leave us alone. In fact the Lord goes before us, he goes with us and he goes behind us. Not that we will pass through this world without a few battle scars but that as he is with us in front and behind the trials in this life will lead to a steadfastness of faith as we read in James 1:2-4
“2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”
So in this very short passage we can find four great evidences of the Lord’s faithfulness during the times of sojourning.
The first is that in our time of sojourning we have strength because of the firm foundation set by the Lord. Secondly we find encouragement by learning not to despise small beginnings. Thirdly we grow a steadfast hope as we see the fulfilment of promise and finally we have victory through the trials of faith.
So let us look first at the firm foundations that have been laid down for us from which we draw strength. In these first few verses we have listed the 12 patriarchs. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun; Joseph and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. Israel was not founded as a single nation but as twelve tribes, twelve nations. The Lord has put in place twelve spiritual fathers, twelve founding fathers, and twelve witnesses to the glory and might that the he showed forth in the redemption of Israel from slavery as he brought them out form Egypt that they might worship of the one true God. These twelve patriarchs were witness of the foreshadowing of the Kingdom of God as the Lord brought them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, subduing their enemies under king David and living in peace and prosperity under Solomon while the Temple of the Lord dwelt in the midst of his people. And from these nations came the priest, prophets and kings who foreshadowed the coming of Jesus in whom these three roles find their fullness. And it is this pattern that we again find repeated in the New Testament with the 12 apostles who were the witnesses of the coming of the Kingdom of God through Jesus, the anointed one, God become man. And it was the apostles who laid down the foundations of the gospel with Jesus as the cornerstone.
As we read in Ephesians 2:18-22
“18 For through him (we) both Jew and Gentiles have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then (you) we are no longer strangers and aliens, but (you) we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him (you) we also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
And so in our sojourning we can be sure of the foundation that we have in the prophets and apostles confident that we are being built together as the church into the holy temple the dwelling place of God by his Spirit.
Secondly during our time of sojourning we draw encouragement by learning not to despise small beginnings. Here we notice that from the time of Abram’s call out of the city of Ur until Jacob enters Egypt with his sons and their households the number of the Israel is a minimal 75. It can often hard to understand and trust in God’s timing for our lives. After such a great promise to Abram that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the heavens and the sand on the shore but in his lifetime he saw only one son born to that promise. And when that son Isaac grew he had two sons but again only through the one son Jacob that the promise of many offspring was to flow. And it was only right at the end of Isaac’s life that he meet the 12 sons of Jacob the beginning of the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel had small beginnings but not just for a few years but many generations. We need to sometimes put into perspective the work that the Lord has for us in our life of sojourning and let us not despise our work for the Lord if we are to be part of the generation of small beginnings.
As we read in Job 8:7
“If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. 7 And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.”
So let us not lose heart but in all things seek the face of the Lord and let us not despise our small beginnings.
Thirdly during our time of sojourning we can grow a steadfast hope by witnessing the fulfillment of promise. After 215 years of small beginnings suddenly there is an explosion of growth and this truly was growth from the Lord. The whole scene is changing. Up to now we have seen the promises passed down from father to son and we have been intimately introduced to each successive generation and seen how the Lord has kept the offspring of the promise through thick and thin and even protected them from one another in the case of Joseph and his brothers. But now the very specific protection has passed away as we read of the death of Joseph, and all his brothers and all that generation. And so with the death of a seed, Joseph the patriarchal protector, we see the protection of Israel is now evident through the fulfillment of the promise; the population of Israel exploded and grew into a nation. And it was Joseph who we see is the foreshadowing type of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who ensured that not one of the disciples that the Father had given to him fell away therefore ensuring their continued witness as the foundation of the church. There is a very curious phrasing in verse 7 that puts in mind a rather extraordinary growth. We are set in mind almost how one might describe the multiplication of insects in the rapidness and strength of numbers that emerges.
Exodus 1:7
“Israel was fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.”
We can be reminded here of Psalm 127:1-2
“1Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
We see times when the patriarchs looked to take God’s promises into their own hands but it did not prevail. God kept the beginnings small and when the timing was right the promise was fulfilled and fulfilled abundantly. And in this we can take heart that God will build his church. Not always in the way we expect and not always at the time we predict. So it is our job to partner with the Lord and walk with him in spirit that we labour where he is labouring in his strength and not on our own projects in our own timing and in our own strength. This is where we find peace and can put away our anxiety and our worry and lean on the Lord for his growth, in his time, by his strength.
And so finally in our sojourning we have victory as we bear the trials of faith that lead to steadfastness. This victory can be seen as we look back and glory in the fruit that trials bring forth. 1000s of miles, 3 famines, family disputes, kidnappings, rescue operations, several battles, barrenness, affliction, intercession, sacrifice, family death, sibling rivalry, deception, fear, rape, struggle, slavery, accusation and imprisonment. And these are just the recorded trials of faith through which the church was passed in the time of the patriarchs. But despite the trials all the while they had the promises of God to hold to. It was often tough but God gave the gift of his promises to this fledgling nation that no only had they been pre-warned of the affliction they would face but they had also been given the number of years they were to face it. But with the promise of affliction also came the promise of deliverance. And not just the deliverance of one escaping from the fire but a deliverance of justice and reward.
We can read of this in Gen. 15:14.
“14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”
We too have been given a promise as the Church that as citizens of the Kingdom of God our future is secure with The Lord in eternity. And that we will not leave this world scared and worn down by our affliction but instead that death will be swallowed up in victory; our joy will be all the greater because of the trials. And on top of that the work we do in Christ will be rewarded. But as we take seriously the promise of our deliverance we must also take seriously the coming judgement for the godless. Although it seems in our current day that judgement is being withheld the punishment of the wicked is near. But we do not know the timing only that we are to be ready. And just as the patriarchs experience a delay in the fulfilment of the promises of God, that a work of steadfastness might be accomplished in them, we too experience that delay. This is so that the time of the Gentiles might be fulfilled and all the church gathered together. And what is the result? God’s power and glory might all the more be magnified.
Though the fulfilment of God’s promises might seem slow to us let us be assured that although God is patient the time will come like a thief in night for those unprepared.
As we read in Hab. 2:3
“3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
And so what great strength, encouragement, steadfast hope and ultimate victory we have at our disposal. Although we are sojourners in this world and we have are eyes fixed on our heavenly home in the meantime we struggle day and night with the presence of sin. This is not a futile struggle but a struggle that produces a steadfastness of faith that we might be formed into the church of God’s people, the bride of Christ, perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Though we sojourn we can also be at peace holding fast to the promises of Christ, ready to do all the good work that he has prepared for us to do even if that work is but part of the small beginnings.
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: God of Wrath vs God of Love
Deut. 3:3 and Luke 6:35
Sometimes in our minds we can get all tangled up when in the old testament we read of Moses, at the Lord's command, slaughtering an entire people right down to the last survivor and then we read in the new testament Jesus commanding us to love our enemies? Are we not seeing two different God's here or at the very least God having changed his mind on how to act somewhere in between the last book in the old testament Malachi and the first book in the new, Matthew.
This is something that I have personally been thinking and persuing a clear answer for for sometime and I feel that recently for me the last few pieces of the puzzle have clicked into place and I would love share this with you.
The key to this conundrum I think lies in Romans 2:3 where Paul explains the Lord's kindness, forbearance and patience towards sin. What we often interpret as the Lord not acting in history, not displaying his wrath against judgement or the slow fulfilment of prophesy Paul actually explains as patience. One thing that is interesting to remember is that the time period covered by the old testament period is significantly longer than that of the new. Often we can mistakingly think that the Lord was constantly destroying one nations after another in judgement. But in actually fact there are long periods of patience recorded in the old testament where the Lord delays the punishment of a nation until their sin had reached a critical mass and then he steps in. The most obvious occasion is during the Lord's covenant making to Abraham in Genesis 15 where the Lord details to Abraham that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
Another aspects of this problem is again detailed by Paul in Romans 12:19 where he records the Lord's command that vengeance is his and his only. If we take a careful look at the old testament we will discover that at each point that a nation is judged and wiped out it was always at the specific instruction from the Lord and whenever the Israelites decided to take things into their own hands and deal out a bit of their own judgement the Lord comdemed them for it.
The final piece of this puzzle comes together when we consider exactly how seriously the Lord considers sin. We must not take lightly the periods of patience depicting God as a God of Love only and forgetting his wrath and judgement towards sin. If we think that Gods wrath and judgement has been confined to the old testament period we need to remember Jesus' prophesy of the fall of Jesusalem and the historical recording of this we find in Josephus' writing. The death toll in Jerusalem itself without taking into account the surrounding towns was over a million. It is not easy reading and was a horrendous judgement that brought about an end to the age of the jews and signified the age of the gentiles.
And let us not forget the prophesy's of John of the end times when Jesus comes again in glory. There will again be an out pouring of wrath and woe to those whoes names are not written in the book of life as that day will be horrendous eclipsing all previous judgements. So let us not delay in seeking the face of the Lord and repenting of sin and leading other to do the same lest we become complacent that during this time of patience we forget the nearness of the final coming wrath!
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: Contraception
Ex. 1:7
As Christians contraception is a difficult topic because in a similar way to money we can very easily us it to control exactly how we want our lives with no room for God any longer. The world around us shouts loud that marriage/committed relationships is all about individual happiness and not the God centred, sanctifying, self sacrificing, loving environment perfectly designed for the bringing up of children that the Bible displays.
This attitude has begun to creep into the church and as a result there is a general trend of waiting longer and longer to get married in order to focus on careers or simple because we are not ready for marriage and once we are married we wait longer and longer to have kids for a variety of reasons because we are availing ourselves more and more of the control given us by contraception. Are these very subtle attacks drawing us away from the Biblical perspective on marriage and family? Aided with a more relaxed attitude towards contraception we as couples are now using this control over our bodies to delay conception and or limit the numbers of children in our family. Who are the winners and losers in this new relaxed attitude?
I do find the growing trend a case for concern when contraception is now so widely used amongst evangelicals that it is very rarely questioned and no longer is it a case by case exception but the accepted norm.
So what are the implications? Are we questioning our motivations enough?
If children are a blessing from the Lord are we using our control to limit that; Are we saying that we do not trust the Lord for the number of children that he intends for our lives; Are we saying to the Lord that we do not trust his timing in our contraception or alternatively are we to use this control to wisely and prayerfully limit the number and timing of the children in our family?
Are we worried about the financial implications of lots of children; Are we too concerned for our children to get the best of the best and that would never be possible to provide for more that 2 or 3 or alternitavely are we using our God given wisdom in stewardship or to not overstretch ourselves or do we feel a different calling for our family?
Perhaps these are interesting questions for the church today in the light of the ever decreasing emphasis in our country being placed on marriage and family. Are we as Christians being truly counter cultural, or are we being more subtly influenced by the world than we would care to admit? What does it indicate when contraception is more the default setting instead of a considered case by case basis? Let us always and often be questioning our motivations in all areas of life continually looking to become more Christ like for our good and his glory.
Dave and Cath
As Christians contraception is a difficult topic because in a similar way to money we can very easily us it to control exactly how we want our lives with no room for God any longer. The world around us shouts loud that marriage/committed relationships is all about individual happiness and not the God centred, sanctifying, self sacrificing, loving environment perfectly designed for the bringing up of children that the Bible displays.
This attitude has begun to creep into the church and as a result there is a general trend of waiting longer and longer to get married in order to focus on careers or simple because we are not ready for marriage and once we are married we wait longer and longer to have kids for a variety of reasons because we are availing ourselves more and more of the control given us by contraception. Are these very subtle attacks drawing us away from the Biblical perspective on marriage and family? Aided with a more relaxed attitude towards contraception we as couples are now using this control over our bodies to delay conception and or limit the numbers of children in our family. Who are the winners and losers in this new relaxed attitude?
I do find the growing trend a case for concern when contraception is now so widely used amongst evangelicals that it is very rarely questioned and no longer is it a case by case exception but the accepted norm.
So what are the implications? Are we questioning our motivations enough?
If children are a blessing from the Lord are we using our control to limit that; Are we saying that we do not trust the Lord for the number of children that he intends for our lives; Are we saying to the Lord that we do not trust his timing in our contraception or alternatively are we to use this control to wisely and prayerfully limit the number and timing of the children in our family?
Are we worried about the financial implications of lots of children; Are we too concerned for our children to get the best of the best and that would never be possible to provide for more that 2 or 3 or alternitavely are we using our God given wisdom in stewardship or to not overstretch ourselves or do we feel a different calling for our family?
Perhaps these are interesting questions for the church today in the light of the ever decreasing emphasis in our country being placed on marriage and family. Are we as Christians being truly counter cultural, or are we being more subtly influenced by the world than we would care to admit? What does it indicate when contraception is more the default setting instead of a considered case by case basis? Let us always and often be questioning our motivations in all areas of life continually looking to become more Christ like for our good and his glory.
Dave and Cath
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: The Price of Pride - Sermon
The Price of Pride
1 Chronicles 21 and Exodus 30:11-16
In 1 Chronicles 17 we see an important passage that helps us to set the scene for our passage tonight. In the first 15 verses we see described the LORD’s Covenant with David. The Lord is promising to David that he will establish his dynasty, the Davidic dynasty. Additionally we see in this passage the Lord will raise up an offspring of David who will build for the Lord a house and the Lord in return will establish his throne forever. On the surface we see that this was fulfilled through Solomon and the temple he built for the Lord’s dwelling but ultimately this would be through the Jesus’ death on the cross establishing him as the King of Kings in the line of David and that he would build his church that would become the dwelling place of the Lord.
So as we think about David in tonight’s passage what was his role in the Lord’s covenant. Well we see detailed in Chapters 18-20 by the Chronicler the wars of David. From the beginning of his reign to the end David enlarged the kingdom of Israel to about 3 times its original size and established Israel as the dominant power in Syria and Palestine and there by winning for the people “rest.” A time of peace from their enemies that was enjoyed through the reign of Solomon. In addition the wealth accrued from the wars was set aside for the building of the temple. But let us not forget as David did an important line spoken by the Lord that we find in 17:8
“I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you.”
So it was through David that the Lord brought rest to his people Israel through military success. Without the Lord there would have been no success. So David’s role in israel was to bring rest to the people and interestingly enough the two major episodes that we see David straying from this aspect of his reign. The first is the episode with Bathsheba when he stayed at home in Jerusalem during the time when the Kings go out to war. The second is the passage today at the height of his military prowess when we read of David having subdued his enemies but then being incited by Satan he called for a census of Israel.
So as we place tonight passage firmly in the context of the Lords’ covenant we understand the success and rest David achieved in his military campaigns. The philistines have been subdued, the Moabites and the Syrians had been defeated and were now servants bringing tribute. David also struck the Ammonites and subjected their people to hard labour. The people of Israel prospered, they had rest from their enemies. And so here we find David faced with a decision to whom does the honour go?
In the book of James we learn about two major trials that we face in life, too major circumstances where what is in our heart, the attitudes inside that the majority of the time we keep hidden, have a tendency to bubble to the surface. James identifies these two trials as follows: the first is a poverty and the second is riches. Now when we speak of the trial of poverty and riches we are not limiting ourselves to monetary poverty and riches but also things like the poverty and riches of time of friends of intellect of education of character. It is during these trials that we are tested. For the non-Christian this test leads to judgement and for the Christian for the people of God it is for sanctification, that is the process of becoming more Christ-like. So in this passage we see David fail to face his trial of riches in response to his military successes and we are going to look at his response to help us in how we are to correctly face these types of trials in our own lives.
I am going to break the passage down in to three areas: The nature of sin; the cost of pride; and the price of restoration. In order to ground our understanding of the nature of David’s sin we will need to look a little closer at the purpose of a census. For this we look to our second passage where for the first time in the Bible census is mentioned, Exodus 30:11-16 the census tax.
As part of the Laws that God gives to Moses after the Exodus we find instructions on the way a census is to be performed. As part of God’s laws, that he set down, for building a new community of people he told Moses that when you take a census, each adult male over twenty is to give a ransom for his life in order to avoid a plague. It seems almost out of place. This passage on the census tax is squeezed in between instructions for the altar of incense and instructions for the bronze basin of the tabernacle. This is no coincidence as we will see later, but instead an opportunity to learn about the passage from its context.
What it is important to note here and something that is easily missed, is that it is the census itself that brings forth the wrath and judgement of God. It is actually the act of performing a census that brings about the judgement of the plague not the refusal to pay the ransom price. We could read verse 12 to say that
“When you take a census of the people of Israel then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord… OR there will be plague among you”
But the fact is that that is not what verse 12 says, it says.
“When you take a census of the people of Israel then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord… THAT there will be no plague among you”
Why is that? Where is the evil in the act of numbering, the very act of taking the census. Well the answer lies in how the process of counting reveals something about one’s attitude to the count-ees. If I had a tin of biscuits and offered you one you would probably think nothing of it. If, however, before I offered you one I made you aware of the fact that I had exactly 38 biscuits in my tin you might hesitate a little before accepting one. The very fact that I had taken the time to number my biscuits and know exactly how many I had tells you something about my attitude towards those biscuits, a certain possessive attitude, a certain level of control, a certain unhealthy custody about my biscuits. Why should I bother to number them? In the actual process of counting my biscuits I am staking my claim as owner of the biscuits. It is no longer about the biscuits they become a means to an end. It is all about ownership, “My 38 biscuits”. It is all about control, exactly how many biscuits I have. It’s all about comparison, how many biscuits I have in comparison to others. It is all about self-worth, how the number of biscuits makes me feel. What does all this boil down too? It is all about Pride. It may seem an extreme example but hopefully the extremity of it brings clarity.
And so here lies the nature of David’s sin. In looking to count the armies of Israel he was wishing to draw attention to himself in pride. He had over a million men at his call and he was keen to let others know in order to reflect positively on himself. The attitude of pride in David’s heart over his military successes bubbled to the surface in his ordering of the census.
These temptations are not just limited to biscuits and armies however but are present in the counting of our money or processions our education or status. Pride is often a little more subtle than sending out the commander of your armies on a census mission that would have taken a few months to complete. What we find is pride hiding in our everyday life. But as we look at the outworking of pride in life we need to remember that there are two types of pride. The first type of pride is that of a superiority and tends to show itself in the trials of success. When we look down on people because we consider who they are or what they are doing beneath us. The second type of pride is that of inferiority and tends to show itself in the trial of poverty. When we look up at others and think “I wish i could be like that person” or “If only I could do the things they do” or “how come they have that job and not me i could do it much better?” Both of these are pride because as CS Lewis clearly puts it the Biblical view of pride is an unceasing, never sleeping focus on self. Can you see how both these forms of pride lead to self focus? Whereas humility is other-focused pride is self-focus. So we can see these forms of pride working themselves out in the everyday.
Pride can show itself if we are the type of person that is always seeking attention always wanting people to be interested in what we have to say, the dominant person in every conversation. Or pride can show itself if we are the type of person who is jealous or critical of others. Jealous of someone else’s success or critical of people actions, lifestyle or dress. Perhaps pride shows itself in our need to win even at a simple game of bridge. Or we have a particular pattern of lying to put ourselves in a favourable light or make someone else look worse. Perhaps we have a hard time acknowledging when we have done something wrong. We just shrug it off, “Oh well nobody’s perfect are they?” Perhaps our pride surfaces in our conflicts or as self-importance when we cut in line at the supermarket or on the motorway slip road. Maybe our pride comes out when we get upset that no-one has honoured our service or says thank you when we let them out or hold the door or give them a gift. Perhaps we tend towards an attitude of entitlement, “I have worked hard I deserve this.” Or perhaps we just have a general feeling that we are good people at heart, not like all those other people out there! You see how we have to be wary of our pride how it can easily hide itself.
And so now we come to cost of pride? What do we learn from this passage is the cost of pride? Well we see that there was a great cost to this sin. Gad David’s seer was sent by the Lord to give David a choice either three years of famine, three months of devastation by his enemies or three days of the sword of the Lord, through plague. David chose to fall into the hands of the Lord instead of the hands of man and 70,000 men of Israel fell. Interesting to note the judgement that came upon the people of Israel was the same as promised in our census passage in Exodus. In the Exodus passage we see the promise of God’s wrath towards the process of a census. In the Exodus passage we learn how the judgement of a census is to be avoid. The Lord tells Moses that each adult male numbered shall give a ransom for his life. The focus of a census with its possessiveness, ownership and pride is flipped on its head through the action of paying a life ransom. Because for them the people to pay a ransom is a big statement that shouts I am not the owner of my life but I owe it to another. I am not lord of my life I owe my life to another. This act of paying a ransom has two outworkings the first of which helps us to understand the cost of pride. So the first outworking of the ransom is a reminder that our life is not our own. What it is very important to notice at this point is that although it was David’s sin that ordered the census the judgement is felt by all the people of Israel because the sin of the representative head transfers to the people. You see in not calling for the life ransom during the census David caused the people of Israel to sin. The payment of a life ransom is actually an act of mercy from God as a reminder. The laws that God imposes on his people are always, always for their deliverance. In this particular case a deliverance from self, from pride. The death of 70,000 seems a little extreme to you and I but only because we have not fully accepted the power of sin! If the pride of the people was left to grow the situation would have been worse. Ironically in the act of taking our life into our own hands, through pride we will lose it. The cost of pride is that it will eat away at us like a plague and this was God’s physical judgement reflecting a spiritual reality. In the Lord’s wisdom even in the ransom price being equal for all, the same for the rich and the poor, diverts from pride the thinking of superiority. That in some way the rich are more important and therefore should pay a higher ransom for their lives. No all are equal in the eyes of the Lord, rich and poor alike. As we see in Job 34:19
“who shows no partiality to princes,
nor regards the rich more than the poor,
for they are all the work of his hands?”
You see our inner most desire in life is for value. It is the way we are built, deep down inside we have a longing for value and this value is comes through relationship, community and partnership. Before the fall this value was met perfectly in the relationship with God and one another that we were designed for. Our value came from him and we were content we were satisfied, we were naked and unashamed, that is our whole life laid bare to God and one another and in it we were unashamed. But then with pride, quite literally came the fall. This sin of pride has plagued humanity ever since. Our ultimate longing is now prevented by the ultimate sin and this is PRIDE! And what was the first thing that happened after the fall, a covering of our bodies and a hiding from the Lord. The pride in our life tries to restore the joy in relationship we had before the fall by filling this longing in our heart from the value we get on earth. But no matter how successful we are no matter how much money or power or acclaim we accrue it will not satisfy. This is the cost of pride in our life!
And so we come to our final point the price of restoration. Here we revisit the census ransom the first outworking of which reminded the people that their life was not their own, that we are created and that we have a creator. The second outworking of the census ransom is the connection to atonement. In this we can see that the placement of this passage in Exodus is not as random as it first seems. We find the Exodus passage right in the middle of God’s instruction on how the Israelites were to atone for their sin through worship in the Tabernacle. The Lord is our maker but in the beginning through pride we tried to take our life into our own hands. However, instead of gaining our life we lost it in slavery to sin. This is the other side of the ransom the atonement for our lives. The atonement money paid through the census was to go towards the service of the Tabernacle, the service of atonement. The ransom money was not only for the remembrance of our Maker but also for the remembrance of the price required to buy us out of our slavery to sin.
In this passage King David had set his value his self-worth in the strength of his army and wished them numbered that he might glory in his value. God had other plans and would show David the cost of his pride. What David was to learn that as representative of the nation of Israel the cost of his sin would affect the nation and 70,000 died? We too must fully understand the cost of our pride in our life and the life of those around us. The answer is humility but in a fallen world humility comes at a price. The solution is a true humility that draws its source of value from the one of ultimate value, the person we were designed to draw our value from. The definition of humility is to be other-focused. But there is no point in me standing here and telling you to try harder at being humble because that it just morality. And morality is just a form of religiosity which was the sin of the Pharisees. What does religion lead too? It leads to pride! So the answer to pride is humility going from self-focus to other-focused but we cannot achieve it through trying harder to be humble. So what is the answer?
The answer is a price needs to be paid. There is a price for pride because ultimately it is the reason we are separated from God. Something came between us and God that now we are ashamed of the nakedness of a ralationship with the Lord. There needs to be a complete change of nature. The change of our nature from self-centered to other-centered comes at the cost of removing our sin, our pride. In the passage David was called to build an altar to atone for the sin. The Lord acknowledged the sacrifice with fire, with his judgement. But this was only a shadow of the true cost that would be born to finally atone for sin. The place where David built the alter was the threshing floor where the temple would be built by Solomon. And the temple was a foreshadow of Jesus Christ who would once and for all atone for the sin of the world. Breaking down the barrier and allowing us the power to deal with sin, to deal with pride. So the first step to humility is to realise our pride and its cost. To realise that the only way out is if the price is paid but most importantly that we cannot pay. The price has to be paid on our behalf. And finally not only was it paid on our behalf but it was willingly paid. Only in a true understanding and acceptance of this lies humility. Only when we realise that true value comes from the Father. That a life filled with pride is a life destined for destruction. But that God loved us so much that he willingly paid the price of our pride that we could put on the value of Christ. And all this through grace for us who are not only undeserving but ill-deserving. Here lies true humility. When we allow the cost of our sin to sink in. When we understand the price that needed to be paid on our behalf because we could never pay it on our own. And finally the realisation that Jesus willingly laid down his life on our behalf because he puts that much value on our life that we can now stand before the throne of Grace once again stripped of our own efforts stripped of our pride and unashamed. Then we can move from self-focus to other-focused. That is true humility.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: Love Me Less Lord!
Isaiah 5:1-7
Here in Isaiah 5 we see the common illustration of God's chosen people portrayed as the vineyard and he the husbandman. God has taken time to prepare and plant his choice vines in fertile land. He has dug it over and cleared it of stones. There is a hedge and a wall and even a watchtower set up to protect the vineyard. The Lord brings the rains, he prunes and cultivates his vineyard ensuring that no briars and thorns shall grow up to chock the vines. And once the wine vat is hewed he goes looking for the vines yield of grapes but instead of the grapes of a well tended vineyard the Lord finds only wild grapes.
The vines have resisted the pruning, they have drunk the rain and produced naught but foliage, they have revelled in the safety and security of the vineyard and used it for selfish gain. When the Lord has looked for justice amongst his people he has found bloodshed as the Lord has looked for righteousness he has found only outcry!
In our fallen state our cry is not more of you love Lord but less. We want more of the rain but less of the pruning, we want more of the safety and security for our foliage but less of the fruit. We want to be served by God, enabled by him. We want the safety and security of his love but none of the relationship. We think this world is run by science and philosophy if only we can achieve the correct balance of technology and knowledge if only we can find that correct set of laws and morality then all will be well. We think if we can get just the right amount of take then we will have no need to give.
The trouble is the meaning of life is not a science or a philosophy but a relationship, a relationship of love. This love is not the romantic love of the 20th century where our sights are set on finding our one true love. Where if we can't find that one person who will enable us, support us and love us unconditionally, requiring nothing in return then life is incomplete. True love is emotion in action and requires complete sacrifice and complete submission from both parties. This is the love that God searches for, this is the love he offers. But surely we could never love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength!? That's right we can't and the example of the Israelites and the world around us shows that that will never happen.
But there is someone who has done that on our behalf and his name is Jesus. Jesus is the fulfilment of God's promise to love his people it that while we were still enemies he died for us and on the flip side he stood in our place as the second Adam and fulfilled our side of the relationship too! So that now through Jesus we truly can love God will all our heart, soul, mind and strength and we can receive his full love in return. No longer is our cry "love me less Lord" but empowered by the Holy Spirit we are to rejoice in the pruning of our lives that one day we will be presented perfect and spotless before the Father as the bride of Christ.
Here in Isaiah 5 we see the common illustration of God's chosen people portrayed as the vineyard and he the husbandman. God has taken time to prepare and plant his choice vines in fertile land. He has dug it over and cleared it of stones. There is a hedge and a wall and even a watchtower set up to protect the vineyard. The Lord brings the rains, he prunes and cultivates his vineyard ensuring that no briars and thorns shall grow up to chock the vines. And once the wine vat is hewed he goes looking for the vines yield of grapes but instead of the grapes of a well tended vineyard the Lord finds only wild grapes.
The vines have resisted the pruning, they have drunk the rain and produced naught but foliage, they have revelled in the safety and security of the vineyard and used it for selfish gain. When the Lord has looked for justice amongst his people he has found bloodshed as the Lord has looked for righteousness he has found only outcry!
In our fallen state our cry is not more of you love Lord but less. We want more of the rain but less of the pruning, we want more of the safety and security for our foliage but less of the fruit. We want to be served by God, enabled by him. We want the safety and security of his love but none of the relationship. We think this world is run by science and philosophy if only we can achieve the correct balance of technology and knowledge if only we can find that correct set of laws and morality then all will be well. We think if we can get just the right amount of take then we will have no need to give.
The trouble is the meaning of life is not a science or a philosophy but a relationship, a relationship of love. This love is not the romantic love of the 20th century where our sights are set on finding our one true love. Where if we can't find that one person who will enable us, support us and love us unconditionally, requiring nothing in return then life is incomplete. True love is emotion in action and requires complete sacrifice and complete submission from both parties. This is the love that God searches for, this is the love he offers. But surely we could never love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength!? That's right we can't and the example of the Israelites and the world around us shows that that will never happen.
But there is someone who has done that on our behalf and his name is Jesus. Jesus is the fulfilment of God's promise to love his people it that while we were still enemies he died for us and on the flip side he stood in our place as the second Adam and fulfilled our side of the relationship too! So that now through Jesus we truly can love God will all our heart, soul, mind and strength and we can receive his full love in return. No longer is our cry "love me less Lord" but empowered by the Holy Spirit we are to rejoice in the pruning of our lives that one day we will be presented perfect and spotless before the Father as the bride of Christ.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: Fully Laden
Isaiah 1:4
At the beginning of Isaiah we see the vision that addresses a people who although they have been brought up by God, externally directed by him, they have lost a true view of him. In their rebellion they have lost sight of God as their owner, that they are his people, and they have lost sight of their master,he is their Lord. There is a fascinating view of what this means for Israel in the picture Isaiah lays out in the beginning of verse 4."Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity." What an insight into the picture of our rebellion. That without a true understanding of God as our owner and Lord we are weighed down with our sins. Worry for instance is when we believe we know what the future should be and we weigh ourselves down with the effort of obtaining that. Or if we lie about something in an effort to present ourselves in a better light we are in fact weighing ourselves down with a self expectation that without we are of less value. All these sins weigh us down and we end up carrying them all around with us. In the end they will break us and drag us down. But the solution is not one of determination to try harder... oh next time I won't lie because I understand that I only make things worse for myself. Or... next time I won't worry because in worrying I never changed anything. These solutions bring their own burden, the religious burden, the moral burden. They will never work as Isaiah puts it we are offspring of evildoers what hope do we have. Even in a religious attempt to see God as owner and Lord we will fall. But there was one who did succeed and his name was Jesus. Through his victory on the cross he offers us a new burden to carry. His yoke is easy his burden is light. Through the Holy Spirit we can be empowered to understand truly God the Father as owner and Lord and out of that truth and only out of that we can be in a position where there is no need to lie, there is no need to worry. The burden of the future and the burden of our self image is lifted from our shoulders and in its place a knowledge of Gods sovereignty and Gods view of us that while we were still rebels he laid down his life for us.
At the beginning of Isaiah we see the vision that addresses a people who although they have been brought up by God, externally directed by him, they have lost a true view of him. In their rebellion they have lost sight of God as their owner, that they are his people, and they have lost sight of their master,he is their Lord. There is a fascinating view of what this means for Israel in the picture Isaiah lays out in the beginning of verse 4."Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity." What an insight into the picture of our rebellion. That without a true understanding of God as our owner and Lord we are weighed down with our sins. Worry for instance is when we believe we know what the future should be and we weigh ourselves down with the effort of obtaining that. Or if we lie about something in an effort to present ourselves in a better light we are in fact weighing ourselves down with a self expectation that without we are of less value. All these sins weigh us down and we end up carrying them all around with us. In the end they will break us and drag us down. But the solution is not one of determination to try harder... oh next time I won't lie because I understand that I only make things worse for myself. Or... next time I won't worry because in worrying I never changed anything. These solutions bring their own burden, the religious burden, the moral burden. They will never work as Isaiah puts it we are offspring of evildoers what hope do we have. Even in a religious attempt to see God as owner and Lord we will fall. But there was one who did succeed and his name was Jesus. Through his victory on the cross he offers us a new burden to carry. His yoke is easy his burden is light. Through the Holy Spirit we can be empowered to understand truly God the Father as owner and Lord and out of that truth and only out of that we can be in a position where there is no need to lie, there is no need to worry. The burden of the future and the burden of our self image is lifted from our shoulders and in its place a knowledge of Gods sovereignty and Gods view of us that while we were still rebels he laid down his life for us.
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Monday, 17 January 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: Slow or Patient?
2 Peter 3:1-13
In the day and age of today's technology waiting the few seconds for a webpage to load can show our impatience. Peter in these verses talks of a different impatience, an impatience for God to act in a world full of sin. There are those who will mock by saying where is God in this world full of sin and pain. If he is a God of love why doesn't he act against injustice. We can even get extreeme examples of people shouting at the sky, "God if you exist strick me now!" How do we react to such mocking of our faith? More importantly how do stop ourselves falling into the same trap of thinking God is uninterested in the evil and suffering in the world, in our own lives and the lives of our family and friends? In these verses Peter challenges us to stop our navel gazing and remind ourselves of some important truths.
God has at some very imporant points stepped into time and acted. At creation by the power of his word the world came forth out of and through the water. In the time of Noah God bought judgement on the world through a reversal of creation. And through his word this current age is being stored up for the coming judgement through fire. God has acted twice before and he will act again on the last day in final judgement. We trust God because of his word and because of his previous actions. We should not however think God slow in acting out the final judgement at the end of time to rid this world of sin once and for all. Instead we are to understand that the Lord is not slow but patient. The Lord wishes not "that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance"
Instead of longing for the removal of sin from this world we should rejoice in our opportunity to suffer on behalf of Christ and that each day is a gift of grace for those who don't know Christ to turn and repent. In the mean time we hasten that day through lives of holiness and godliness that more might know Christ. 
In the day and age of today's technology waiting the few seconds for a webpage to load can show our impatience. Peter in these verses talks of a different impatience, an impatience for God to act in a world full of sin. There are those who will mock by saying where is God in this world full of sin and pain. If he is a God of love why doesn't he act against injustice. We can even get extreeme examples of people shouting at the sky, "God if you exist strick me now!" How do we react to such mocking of our faith? More importantly how do stop ourselves falling into the same trap of thinking God is uninterested in the evil and suffering in the world, in our own lives and the lives of our family and friends? In these verses Peter challenges us to stop our navel gazing and remind ourselves of some important truths.
God has at some very imporant points stepped into time and acted. At creation by the power of his word the world came forth out of and through the water. In the time of Noah God bought judgement on the world through a reversal of creation. And through his word this current age is being stored up for the coming judgement through fire. God has acted twice before and he will act again on the last day in final judgement. We trust God because of his word and because of his previous actions. We should not however think God slow in acting out the final judgement at the end of time to rid this world of sin once and for all. Instead we are to understand that the Lord is not slow but patient. The Lord wishes not "that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance"
Instead of longing for the removal of sin from this world we should rejoice in our opportunity to suffer on behalf of Christ and that each day is a gift of grace for those who don't know Christ to turn and repent. In the mean time we hasten that day through lives of holiness and godliness that more might know Christ.
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Friday, 14 January 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: Sure Salvation
2 Peter 1:10 & 2:21
Taken out of the context of the Bible and a true knowledge of God it could be easy to see these verses as a comment on losing salvation. The truth of the matter is that if God in his mercy has called and elected us who can withstand such a calling? However there is a warning in these verses that false prophets and teachers can be part of the church, can claim christianity as there own, can partake in the Lord's supper, can have known the way of righteousness and yet not be called.
Peter implores us to be watchful that we do not follow such men and women. We will know who there are by their lack of purity in sexual sin and their lack of generosity through greed. These people will look for those who are not mature in faith, new christians, and entice them back to sin. Teaching that there is really no harm in sensual passions and sexual sin. If you love one another why not also be physically connected or live together. Their teaching will be self focused that we deserve the money we have, I mean why not we have earned it. Under the guise of freedom they intice others to become as they are slaves of corruption. Insatiable for sin. An appitite of sin that is never satisfied. So dangerous is this path that Peter says that it would have been better had they never experienced the way of righteousness. In doing so they stoke the fires of their own hell hotter.
Instead we are to to be diligent in our path from faith to love that we make sure our calling and election. We need to build on the sure foundation of Christ with silver and gold not wood and straw. In this way we can see the false teachers and prophets for who they are and not follow in their ways.
Taken out of the context of the Bible and a true knowledge of God it could be easy to see these verses as a comment on losing salvation. The truth of the matter is that if God in his mercy has called and elected us who can withstand such a calling? However there is a warning in these verses that false prophets and teachers can be part of the church, can claim christianity as there own, can partake in the Lord's supper, can have known the way of righteousness and yet not be called.
Peter implores us to be watchful that we do not follow such men and women. We will know who there are by their lack of purity in sexual sin and their lack of generosity through greed. These people will look for those who are not mature in faith, new christians, and entice them back to sin. Teaching that there is really no harm in sensual passions and sexual sin. If you love one another why not also be physically connected or live together. Their teaching will be self focused that we deserve the money we have, I mean why not we have earned it. Under the guise of freedom they intice others to become as they are slaves of corruption. Insatiable for sin. An appitite of sin that is never satisfied. So dangerous is this path that Peter says that it would have been better had they never experienced the way of righteousness. In doing so they stoke the fires of their own hell hotter.
Instead we are to to be diligent in our path from faith to love that we make sure our calling and election. We need to build on the sure foundation of Christ with silver and gold not wood and straw. In this way we can see the false teachers and prophets for who they are and not follow in their ways.
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Thursday, 13 January 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: Faith to Love
2 Peter 1:3-7
"We are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone."
Peter tells us that through the power of God we have been granted in salvation all things that pertain to life and godliness. But not only do we now have the capacity to godliness but we are called to it. As God had promised we have become partakers in the divine nature because we have been delivered from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires.
What this means is that through the Holy Spirit we have been empowered to separate ourselves from the corruption of sinful desires. However this is not an immediate process but a slow progression of sanctification. For this reason Peter says we are to make every effort to supplement our faith with the good works the Lord has prepared for us to do.
We begin with faith a gift from God
To this we add virtue - that is the acting with integrity and righteousness
To vitue we add knowledge - that is an aquaintance with the truth - an aquaintance with God.
To Knowledge we add self control - that is a restraint of self - a restraint of pride
To self control we add steadfastness - that is unwavering resolution to a fixed direction
To steadfastness we add godliness - that is devotion to God - the direction of our resolution
To godliness we add brotherly affection - that is devotion to others - the direction of our resolution
To brothery affection we add Love - that is a demonstration of worth through sacrifice.
In following this path from Faith to Love Peter promises that we will be kept from ineffectivness and unfruitfulness of the knowledge of the gospel in our lives - that is the love of God who showed us our worth that while we were yet sinners, enemies of his he made the ultimte sacrifice by dying for us.
May the name of the Lord be praised!
"We are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone."
Peter tells us that through the power of God we have been granted in salvation all things that pertain to life and godliness. But not only do we now have the capacity to godliness but we are called to it. As God had promised we have become partakers in the divine nature because we have been delivered from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires.
What this means is that through the Holy Spirit we have been empowered to separate ourselves from the corruption of sinful desires. However this is not an immediate process but a slow progression of sanctification. For this reason Peter says we are to make every effort to supplement our faith with the good works the Lord has prepared for us to do.
We begin with faith a gift from God
To this we add virtue - that is the acting with integrity and righteousness
To vitue we add knowledge - that is an aquaintance with the truth - an aquaintance with God.
To Knowledge we add self control - that is a restraint of self - a restraint of pride
To self control we add steadfastness - that is unwavering resolution to a fixed direction
To steadfastness we add godliness - that is devotion to God - the direction of our resolution
To godliness we add brotherly affection - that is devotion to others - the direction of our resolution
To brothery affection we add Love - that is a demonstration of worth through sacrifice.
In following this path from Faith to Love Peter promises that we will be kept from ineffectivness and unfruitfulness of the knowledge of the gospel in our lives - that is the love of God who showed us our worth that while we were yet sinners, enemies of his he made the ultimte sacrifice by dying for us.
May the name of the Lord be praised!
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Monday, 10 January 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: The Solution...
So we come to the solution of these trials. What we see is that these trials of either poverty or prosperity bring out of ourselves what is really in our heart. In our prospeity we can find oursleves showing forth the ugly pride of superiority to all those around us. In our adversity we can find ourselves showing forth the ugly pride of inferiority through self pity.
In the gospel we find the solution to both of these trials. In the gospel we learn that we are wicked to the core, not just un-deserving but ill-deserving. We discover that we can be the most successful person in history but in God's eyes we are no better than the lowliest of the low, the begger in the street. Our looks, money, talent, academics, fame all count for nothing. This is the message of the gospel and during our times of prosperity we use this as our smelling salts to wake us out of our sedation of worldly praise and bring about the humility that is right. The humility of knowing that all good gifts come from the Father above and in our prosperity we have a responsibility to use our riches wisly. But first and foremost we need to learn to give the first fruits of our prosperity to God.
On the other side of things in the gospel we learn that we are more loved than we ever could possibly imagine. We have been bought at a cost beyond worldly reconning. We understand that in God's plan there is never a plan B, there is nothing we can do to step outside of it. No lack of trying, no lack of opportunity, no lack of prosperity can spoil God's plan or will for our lives.
This is the message of the Gospel and we can use this in our times of adversity as smelling salts to wake us up from the depths of self pity and anxiety of the future. This Gospel truths bring about a righteous confidence through which we can step into the future.
Through this Gospel truth we become wise and when in times of favorable circumstances when doing the wrong thing has little or no consequence we humble ourselves through the gospel and pay the cost of holiness. Likewise in times of painful circumstances when doing the wrong thing is the easy option we affirm ouselves through the gospel and again pay the cost of holiness.
In the gospel we find the solution to both of these trials. In the gospel we learn that we are wicked to the core, not just un-deserving but ill-deserving. We discover that we can be the most successful person in history but in God's eyes we are no better than the lowliest of the low, the begger in the street. Our looks, money, talent, academics, fame all count for nothing. This is the message of the gospel and during our times of prosperity we use this as our smelling salts to wake us out of our sedation of worldly praise and bring about the humility that is right. The humility of knowing that all good gifts come from the Father above and in our prosperity we have a responsibility to use our riches wisly. But first and foremost we need to learn to give the first fruits of our prosperity to God.
On the other side of things in the gospel we learn that we are more loved than we ever could possibly imagine. We have been bought at a cost beyond worldly reconning. We understand that in God's plan there is never a plan B, there is nothing we can do to step outside of it. No lack of trying, no lack of opportunity, no lack of prosperity can spoil God's plan or will for our lives.
This is the message of the Gospel and we can use this in our times of adversity as smelling salts to wake us up from the depths of self pity and anxiety of the future. This Gospel truths bring about a righteous confidence through which we can step into the future.
Through this Gospel truth we become wise and when in times of favorable circumstances when doing the wrong thing has little or no consequence we humble ourselves through the gospel and pay the cost of holiness. Likewise in times of painful circumstances when doing the wrong thing is the easy option we affirm ouselves through the gospel and again pay the cost of holiness.
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Friday, 7 January 2011
Conversing the Kingdom: The Problem...
James 1:9-10
The original sin was a turning away from the worship of God to the worship of Self. The outworking of this is pride, continous, unceasing focus on self. Pride has two facets. The better understood of the two is the superiority of pride. The less understod aspect of pride is the inferiority of pride. Both are pride because they cause continuation of self focus where that is a thinking to highly of one self (superioity) or thinking too lowley on one self (inferiority). All of us suffer from one or the other at different times. Pride is the root of sin.
The interesting outworking of these two forms of pride james eludes to in these two verses. The first is adversity best described in terms of a poverty. The second is prosperity best described in terms of riches.Poverty does not only mean monetary poverty but also poverty of family, friends, academics, looks, skills etc. Likewise riches does not only relate to monatry riches but riches of family, friends, academics, skill, beauty etc.
When James talks of trials it can be found that all trials fall into one of these two catagories. Either adversary linked with a poverty, or prosperity linked with riches.
We all face these trial, christian and non-chritians alike the difference is what the trials produce. For the christain these trials are discipline, a test of faith that should produce steadfastness. For the non-christian or the christian that does not handle these trials well they become temporary judgement that works to drive the person back to God.
"The wages of the righteous brings life, the income of the wicked leads to death"
These trials that we face can either for the righteous bring life, as James says a steadfastness that brings perfection and a completion where we reach a state of lacking nothing.Or trials for the wicked will bring judgement... death. A useful way to look at the righteous is as those who sacrifice their weath for the benefit of the community and a way to look at the wicked is to see those who sacrifice the community to hord wealth. In other words the righteous understand that all good gifts come from the Father and we are stewards of that gift and the wicked think they deserve the good gift and hord selfishly.
And so the two trials. For the righteous when adversity comes, when poverty hits, the test of faith is to avoid the inferiority of pride. To say to oneself "Oh woe is me cursed of God, worthless and unlovely". For the righteous when prosperity comes, when riches arrive the test of faith is to aviod the superiority of pride. To say to onself "Blessed am I of God, I have recieved my just reward".
What is the solution?
To be continued...
The original sin was a turning away from the worship of God to the worship of Self. The outworking of this is pride, continous, unceasing focus on self. Pride has two facets. The better understood of the two is the superiority of pride. The less understod aspect of pride is the inferiority of pride. Both are pride because they cause continuation of self focus where that is a thinking to highly of one self (superioity) or thinking too lowley on one self (inferiority). All of us suffer from one or the other at different times. Pride is the root of sin.
The interesting outworking of these two forms of pride james eludes to in these two verses. The first is adversity best described in terms of a poverty. The second is prosperity best described in terms of riches.Poverty does not only mean monetary poverty but also poverty of family, friends, academics, looks, skills etc. Likewise riches does not only relate to monatry riches but riches of family, friends, academics, skill, beauty etc.
When James talks of trials it can be found that all trials fall into one of these two catagories. Either adversary linked with a poverty, or prosperity linked with riches.
We all face these trial, christian and non-chritians alike the difference is what the trials produce. For the christain these trials are discipline, a test of faith that should produce steadfastness. For the non-christian or the christian that does not handle these trials well they become temporary judgement that works to drive the person back to God.
"The wages of the righteous brings life, the income of the wicked leads to death"
These trials that we face can either for the righteous bring life, as James says a steadfastness that brings perfection and a completion where we reach a state of lacking nothing.Or trials for the wicked will bring judgement... death. A useful way to look at the righteous is as those who sacrifice their weath for the benefit of the community and a way to look at the wicked is to see those who sacrifice the community to hord wealth. In other words the righteous understand that all good gifts come from the Father and we are stewards of that gift and the wicked think they deserve the good gift and hord selfishly.
And so the two trials. For the righteous when adversity comes, when poverty hits, the test of faith is to avoid the inferiority of pride. To say to oneself "Oh woe is me cursed of God, worthless and unlovely". For the righteous when prosperity comes, when riches arrive the test of faith is to aviod the superiority of pride. To say to onself "Blessed am I of God, I have recieved my just reward".
What is the solution?
To be continued...
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